Bensalem TV Studio Completes Upgrades

Community television stations normally have one of two options for regular programming. The standard scroll of local information, such as trash pick-up schedules and parks and recreation event schedules, broken up by occasional playbacks of the latest council meetings.

It's a familiar routine that Deron Miller threw out years ago when he took over management of Bensalem Township's television studio in 2006, creating a full slate of original programming from a studio equipped with an assortment of bells and whistles uncommon for municipal T.V. 

Yes, the monthly council meetings are filmed and broadcast, but Miller also goes out into the field, shooting on location weekly concert round-ups from the TD Bank Amphitheater or the parks and recreation department's production of the Little Mermaid Jr.

The in-studio programming features Mornings with the Mayor, an interview show hosted by Mayor Joseph DiGirolamo, and B-Town Talk, hosted by Community Affairs Director Dawn Davis that covers all the events and happenings around town.

Miller started helping out with channel production in 2004, alongside current Bensalem Township School Board President Ralph Douglass, who began volunteering his time managing the community network in the late 1990s. BCT has earned three Telly Awards, one in 2005 and two in 2007. 

"Everybody has been very supportive of the TV channel," said Miller. "We know there are a lot of residents that watch it on a regular basis, many of them from the younger demographic."

The last two weeks of August, viewers tuning in to either Verizon Fios Channel 34 or Comcast Cable Channel 22 were greeted with a place card stating that the station would be off-air while upgrades to the equipment were completed.

Those improvements may not have been immediately obvious when the channel came back on August 30, but followers of the YouTube channel will notice a sharper image.

"We can now film in high-def, but the TV channels still broadcast in standard definition," said Miller. "We also got a new tricaster, which is the brains of the studio, and new virtual sets for the green screen."

The funding for the upgrades comes through the township's franchise agreement with Comcast. Specialists from Applied Video Technology and Telvue performed the installations between August 13 and August 30. 

Miller says that all of the equipment and installment was paid for by Comcast at no cost to the taxpayers.

"Comcast really stepped up for us," says Miller. "They have always been very generous with the franchise agreement."